WOOD COUNTY

Cat found shot to death in pet carrier

BOWLING GREEN — The Wood County Humane Society is investigating a disturbing case in which a cat was confined inside a pet carrier, shot to death, and left on the side of a rural road.

On March 13, the organization received a call from a mother and son who happened upon the gruesome scene while driving by on Liberty Hi Road between Long Judson and Poe roads northwest of Bowling Green.

Humane Society Agent D’Ann Gregory said the pair saw the soft-sided red carrier just off the side of the road and stopped to check it out. “They saw something in it and they thought it was alive,” Ms. Gregory said.

Instead, they found a dead and bloody black-and-white cat.

“The son was pretty traumatized by it, I think,” Ms. Gregory said.

Ms. Gregory said the large, non-neutered male cat appeared to have been shot through the front shoulder and chest area with a large-caliber gun. Several holes in the carrier indicate the cat may have been shot at multiple times or possibly a single time with a shotgun.

The feline, estimated at only a couple of years old, did not have a collar or a microchip. There were no identifying tags or marks on the carrier.

Because of cold weather that froze and preserved the body, the organization has not been able to determine how long the cat had been dead before it was found. It is also unclear how the cat wound up where it did.

“We’re not sure if it was shot there or shot somewhere else and then tossed,” Ms. Gregory said.

Erin McKibben, shelter manager for the humane society, said the shelter takes in cats from time to time that have been shot.

“It’s not very common,” she said. “I’m sure it happens more than what we’re seeing or are aware of, it’s just that they don’t survive.”

She said some rural residents may shoot at stray or owned outdoor cats that wander onto their properties.

“We have received several cats over the years that have come in with [bullet] fragments or pellets in them,” Ms. McKibben said.

Ms. Gregory said the manner in which this cat died — being confined, then shot at a presumably close range — is particularly disturbing.

If the person responsible is found, the humane society will pursue animal-cruelty charges, she said. Anyone who might have information related to the case or who might know the cat is asked to call Ms. Gregory at 419-601-1200 or email cruelty@gmail.comwchsreport.